A friend and I are making rum. We made the molasses and yeast mixture a few days ago, and now my kitchen smells like fermentation and sugar. It'll be clear when we distill it, but we're going to put it in smaller jars and spice each one individually. Mostly they'll have clove, allspice, cinnamon, maybe some cardamom and I'm going to try one with cayenne.
Speaking of things that are delicious and spicy, I've recently fallen in love with ginger beer and want to try my hand at making some. We have everything necessary except ginger root.
I will definitely combine the two for an entirely home-made dark and stormy. Mmm.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Brunch Recipes
Served 6 people, with some leftovers. Pretty much I went to my local library, checked out cookbooks that came up when I searched "brunch," and ran with it.
BASICS
1) 8 hard-boiled eggs
2) Assorted fruit bowl
BEVERAGES
1) Coffee
Black, drip. I miss my French press. Milk, soy milk, and sugar available. The coffee I have right now is a French roast, which I should learn not to buy cheap because it's usually burnt.
2) Mimosas:
-1 part champagne
-1 part orange juice
Serve in champagne flutes
3) The Best Bloody Marys... Ever:
-2 1/2 cups Bakon vodka (possibly the only way this is delicious)
-7 cups tomato juice
-1 T Worcestershire sauce
-1 T Tabasco (or other brand) hot sauce
-Salt and pepper to taste
Throw them into a pitcher and stir. If making less, can be shaken in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Serve over ice in a tall glass and garnish with
-Random pickled foods (mine included string beans, olives, pearl onions, and red peppers my stepbrother and his girlfriend made)
-Lime wedges
-Celery stick
FOOD
1) Donuts my other stepbrother was kind enough to bring over, including maple bacon. Not as good as the original Voodoo Doughnuts maple bacon, but still unexpectedly fabulous.
2) Caraway and Sour Cream Soup (from Cinnamon Mornings by Pamela Lanier)
-4 c chicken stock
-1/4 c butter
-2 c medium-dice onions
-1 c medium-dice celery
-1 c medium-dice carrots
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 T caraway seeds
-1/2 c all-purpose flour
-1 c sour cream
-1/2 c milk
Heat the chicken stock. In a separate 3-qt saucepan, melt butter. Saute onions, celery and carrots. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add caraway seeds. Saute until onion is transparent. Reduce heat and add flour, stirring constantly so as not to scorch. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes to bind flour and fat. Gradually add hot chicken stock, stirring to dissolve the flour mixture. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer.
In a separate bowl, mix sour cream with one cup of hot soup and stir vigorously to prevent curdling. Pour this mixture back into the soup and heat, taking care not to allow soup to boil. Finally, add milk and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Fancy culinary words in this recipe: roux, mirepoix.
2) Shrimp-Shirred Eggs (from same)
-3 T clarified butter
-8 eggs
-1 large shallot, chopped
-1 c brut champagne
-1 1/2 lbs frozen or fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
-3 c heavy cream
-1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter
-8 olive rounds
-salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. Butter a shallow, oven-proof casserole dish large enough to hold 8 eggs in a single layer.
Crack eggs into the casserole, being careful not to break the yolks. Dot yolks with 1 T clarified butter and bake uncovered in oven until the yolks are set.
Heat remaining 2 T clarified butter in a large skillet. Saute the chopped shallots lightly in the butter. Add champagne and reduce by half. Add the shrimp and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Increase heat under skillet and reduce juices to a thin glaze. Blend in cream and simmer until mixture thickens, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from head and whisk in 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, a Tablespoon at a time. Stir in the reserved shrimp, season to taste and pour over the shirred eggs. Garnish with olive slices.
I prepared the mirepoix, other chopped veggies, hard boiled eggs, fruit bowl, and bloody mary pitcher the night before. I also made corn muffins, but they turned out incredibly dry so I don't want to inflict that recipe on anyone else.
BASICS
1) 8 hard-boiled eggs
2) Assorted fruit bowl
BEVERAGES
1) Coffee
Black, drip. I miss my French press. Milk, soy milk, and sugar available. The coffee I have right now is a French roast, which I should learn not to buy cheap because it's usually burnt.
2) Mimosas:
-1 part champagne
-1 part orange juice
Serve in champagne flutes
3) The Best Bloody Marys... Ever:
-2 1/2 cups Bakon vodka (possibly the only way this is delicious)
-7 cups tomato juice
-1 T Worcestershire sauce
-1 T Tabasco (or other brand) hot sauce
-Salt and pepper to taste
Throw them into a pitcher and stir. If making less, can be shaken in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Serve over ice in a tall glass and garnish with
-Random pickled foods (mine included string beans, olives, pearl onions, and red peppers my stepbrother and his girlfriend made)
-Lime wedges
-Celery stick
FOOD
1) Donuts my other stepbrother was kind enough to bring over, including maple bacon. Not as good as the original Voodoo Doughnuts maple bacon, but still unexpectedly fabulous.
2) Caraway and Sour Cream Soup (from Cinnamon Mornings by Pamela Lanier)
-4 c chicken stock
-1/4 c butter
-2 c medium-dice onions
-1 c medium-dice celery
-1 c medium-dice carrots
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 T caraway seeds
-1/2 c all-purpose flour
-1 c sour cream
-1/2 c milk
Heat the chicken stock. In a separate 3-qt saucepan, melt butter. Saute onions, celery and carrots. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add caraway seeds. Saute until onion is transparent. Reduce heat and add flour, stirring constantly so as not to scorch. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes to bind flour and fat. Gradually add hot chicken stock, stirring to dissolve the flour mixture. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer.
In a separate bowl, mix sour cream with one cup of hot soup and stir vigorously to prevent curdling. Pour this mixture back into the soup and heat, taking care not to allow soup to boil. Finally, add milk and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Fancy culinary words in this recipe: roux, mirepoix.
2) Shrimp-Shirred Eggs (from same)
-3 T clarified butter
-8 eggs
-1 large shallot, chopped
-1 c brut champagne
-1 1/2 lbs frozen or fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
-3 c heavy cream
-1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter
-8 olive rounds
-salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. Butter a shallow, oven-proof casserole dish large enough to hold 8 eggs in a single layer.
Crack eggs into the casserole, being careful not to break the yolks. Dot yolks with 1 T clarified butter and bake uncovered in oven until the yolks are set.
Heat remaining 2 T clarified butter in a large skillet. Saute the chopped shallots lightly in the butter. Add champagne and reduce by half. Add the shrimp and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Increase heat under skillet and reduce juices to a thin glaze. Blend in cream and simmer until mixture thickens, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from head and whisk in 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, a Tablespoon at a time. Stir in the reserved shrimp, season to taste and pour over the shirred eggs. Garnish with olive slices.
I prepared the mirepoix, other chopped veggies, hard boiled eggs, fruit bowl, and bloody mary pitcher the night before. I also made corn muffins, but they turned out incredibly dry so I don't want to inflict that recipe on anyone else.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
I'm not dead.
I moved and have been getting settled.
Last Monday I made brunch for a few friends and my stepbrothers. I'll post recipes (no pictures, unfortunately) in the next couple of days, and then maybe a meaty review of The Vegetarian Myth (that pun was unintentional and now I hate myself a little.)
I might start posting stuff about homebrew and local microbreweries, as I'm maybe going to make a honey-blonde ale with my stepbrother. The Pacific Northwest is the perfect place to be a beer-lover. My older stepbrother just bought a house with his girlfriend and plans to grow hops around his back porch. Hell yeah.
Last Monday I made brunch for a few friends and my stepbrothers. I'll post recipes (no pictures, unfortunately) in the next couple of days, and then maybe a meaty review of The Vegetarian Myth (that pun was unintentional and now I hate myself a little.)
I might start posting stuff about homebrew and local microbreweries, as I'm maybe going to make a honey-blonde ale with my stepbrother. The Pacific Northwest is the perfect place to be a beer-lover. My older stepbrother just bought a house with his girlfriend and plans to grow hops around his back porch. Hell yeah.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Quick Link (Food Politics, Race, Privilege)
I'm having a Lazy Intellectual Sunday where I just read intelligent blog posts and sit on the couch. I've been Reading New Model Minority, and she has a great post called Race, Class, Food, and the Future of the City: A Manifesto. She also has a fantastic article on Global Gated Communities that started out talking about vegetables. Check it.
Sorry this blog has been so inactive. I'll get back on it once I get my laptop up and running. I'm borrowing my roommate's for now.
Sorry this blog has been so inactive. I'll get back on it once I get my laptop up and running. I'm borrowing my roommate's for now.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Feminism, Domesticity, and Self-Reliance
My computer has decided to be nice today. I hope this lasts.
This train of thought began, strangely enough, in a linguistics blog. Language Log featured a brief entry about the word "femivore" as one of the extensions of the suffix "-vore" as created in a New York Times article. A good portion of the comments are devoted to discussion of the prefix "femi-" and the suffix "-vore", but a few strayed into the political implications of this small but noticeable movement in food politics.
This is something I've been considering for a long time. Starting a garden, keeping chickens, and generally being fairly self-sufficient with what I consume is incredibly appealing. The feminist implications are still a little iffy for me, as a woman still coming to terms with the possibility of domesticity as a form of feminism. I've been told both that I am "the most domestic of [a friend's] friends but the least likely to be a domestic" and that "whether [I] marry a man or a woman [I'll] be the one in the apron." Coming to terms with being a feminist domestic scares me.
This is because "difference feminism" (as I've heard it called) has often sounded like keeping the traditional place of women in the private sphere and men in the public sphere, with too little emphasis on the work that goes into maintaining a domestic space and almost no discussion about the possibility of a "house-husband" or "male domestic"*. I've seen a number of my moderate-to-radical friends in relationships act out the "men make houses, women make homes" (or even traditional gender roles being assigned to partners in same-sex relationships) model way too often for my taste.
Is "femivore" more related to the prefix "femi-" or the suffix "-vore"? Is this movement focused more on gender or food politics? I see it as a wonderful food politics movement with strong influence on gender politics, but the article is more focused on the feminist aspect of this movement in an almost condescending manner. The last paragraph seems like the author is trying to justify how negatively she views this aberrant lifestyle, but instead of encouraging men to participate more in domestic matters, ends up sounding dismissive of the whole thing. I would love to have garden and own chickens in a sustainable, eco-friendly way, but whoever I was living with (roommate, partner, whatever) would have to give equal effort to domestic affairs. Instead of talking about the negatives, about how this movement can be interpreted as both feminist and anti-feminist, we should talk about how to make them equal. More direct symbiosis, less parasitism.**
On a considerably less academic note, the word "femivorism" is one of the ugliest I've encountered in a good while. I hope it doesn't catch on.
The Femivore's Dilemma (via New York Times)
Vaguely related, Why Making Healthful Foods Cheaper Isn't Enough (via NPR)
*note the marked gender of these phrases
**related to The Vegetarian Myth, which will probably be the focus of my next entry, provided my computer stays on long enough for me to compose a coherent entry
This train of thought began, strangely enough, in a linguistics blog. Language Log featured a brief entry about the word "femivore" as one of the extensions of the suffix "-vore" as created in a New York Times article. A good portion of the comments are devoted to discussion of the prefix "femi-" and the suffix "-vore", but a few strayed into the political implications of this small but noticeable movement in food politics.
This is something I've been considering for a long time. Starting a garden, keeping chickens, and generally being fairly self-sufficient with what I consume is incredibly appealing. The feminist implications are still a little iffy for me, as a woman still coming to terms with the possibility of domesticity as a form of feminism. I've been told both that I am "the most domestic of [a friend's] friends but the least likely to be a domestic" and that "whether [I] marry a man or a woman [I'll] be the one in the apron." Coming to terms with being a feminist domestic scares me.
This is because "difference feminism" (as I've heard it called) has often sounded like keeping the traditional place of women in the private sphere and men in the public sphere, with too little emphasis on the work that goes into maintaining a domestic space and almost no discussion about the possibility of a "house-husband" or "male domestic"*. I've seen a number of my moderate-to-radical friends in relationships act out the "men make houses, women make homes" (or even traditional gender roles being assigned to partners in same-sex relationships) model way too often for my taste.
Is "femivore" more related to the prefix "femi-" or the suffix "-vore"? Is this movement focused more on gender or food politics? I see it as a wonderful food politics movement with strong influence on gender politics, but the article is more focused on the feminist aspect of this movement in an almost condescending manner. The last paragraph seems like the author is trying to justify how negatively she views this aberrant lifestyle, but instead of encouraging men to participate more in domestic matters, ends up sounding dismissive of the whole thing. I would love to have garden and own chickens in a sustainable, eco-friendly way, but whoever I was living with (roommate, partner, whatever) would have to give equal effort to domestic affairs. Instead of talking about the negatives, about how this movement can be interpreted as both feminist and anti-feminist, we should talk about how to make them equal. More direct symbiosis, less parasitism.**
On a considerably less academic note, the word "femivorism" is one of the ugliest I've encountered in a good while. I hope it doesn't catch on.
The Femivore's Dilemma (via New York Times)
Vaguely related, Why Making Healthful Foods Cheaper Isn't Enough (via NPR)
*note the marked gender of these phrases
**related to The Vegetarian Myth, which will probably be the focus of my next entry, provided my computer stays on long enough for me to compose a coherent entry
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Computer Asplosion/Large Quantities of Cupcakes and Shellfish
Lack of updates due to computer only occasionally wanting to start up, and the fan getting extremely angry after an hour to an hour and a half of being alive.
This week, I have baked 8 batches of cupcakes, with recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (which is the best cupcake book you could ever buy.) 4 of them were tiramisu, one batch of carrot cupcakes, one batch of pineapple upside down, one batch of blueberry lemon creme, and one batch of chocolate stout. Most of these were given away or for a bake sale. I may make one more batch of blueberry lemon creme cupcakes, as I have extra lemon frosting and blueberry filling.
Last night the upstairs neighbors had a crawfish boil in the back yard. It sounds like it went pretty okay, but they started around 9 and didn't prepare as well as they could have. Not that I know shit about having a crawfish boil, mind you. They left a huge bag of them out all night, but miraculously quite a few are still alive. The still-living leftovers have been gifted to the 4 of us living downstairs, as 2 out of 3 of the upstairs neighbors keep kosher and there are only so many crawfish one man can eat.
I also got a new friend. His name is Klaus the Crawfish. We will probably eat him, too.
This week, I have baked 8 batches of cupcakes, with recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (which is the best cupcake book you could ever buy.) 4 of them were tiramisu, one batch of carrot cupcakes, one batch of pineapple upside down, one batch of blueberry lemon creme, and one batch of chocolate stout. Most of these were given away or for a bake sale. I may make one more batch of blueberry lemon creme cupcakes, as I have extra lemon frosting and blueberry filling.
Last night the upstairs neighbors had a crawfish boil in the back yard. It sounds like it went pretty okay, but they started around 9 and didn't prepare as well as they could have. Not that I know shit about having a crawfish boil, mind you. They left a huge bag of them out all night, but miraculously quite a few are still alive. The still-living leftovers have been gifted to the 4 of us living downstairs, as 2 out of 3 of the upstairs neighbors keep kosher and there are only so many crawfish one man can eat.
I also got a new friend. His name is Klaus the Crawfish. We will probably eat him, too.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
I fucking love avocados.
Taking a page from my friend Max's book, I'm gonna preface this with "Oh man you guys, I had the best sandwich for lunch."
Toasted whole wheat bread. Sliced avocado. Tomatoes. Mozarella cheese. Vegenaise (vegan mayo, which was cheaper than real mayo). Swedish-style mustard. Romaine lettuce. Yellow onions. If I still ate meat or had bacon, this would be the perfect BLT+. I ate it too fast to take a picture.
Toasted whole wheat bread. Sliced avocado. Tomatoes. Mozarella cheese. Vegenaise (vegan mayo, which was cheaper than real mayo). Swedish-style mustard. Romaine lettuce. Yellow onions. If I still ate meat or had bacon, this would be the perfect BLT+. I ate it too fast to take a picture.
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